Dragon Ball Z: A New Era
by Frank Wilson
Summary: It's been fifteen years since the conclusion of the Tournament of Power, where Goku and friends were victorious, representing Universe Seven. During this time, Earth has seen a time of peace. With Goku and the Z Fighters getting older, Goku looks towards a new powerful fighter to take his place. Will this new mysterious person be up for this incredible adventure?
1. Chapter 1

Wilson / DRAGON BALL Z-A NEW ERA /

Chapter One

It's been 15 years since the defeat of Majin Buu and the world has seen its longest period of peace so far since the Cell Games. The Tournament of Power had concluded, with Goku and friends being the victors while representing Universe Seven. Some of the Z fighters had gone looking for jobs and were getting an education as well so that they could live a normal life that didn't include fighting anymore. Although it seems that most of our heroes had gone their separate ways, it would only be soon that they would be brought together once again.

On the other side of the world from where our heroes resided, the students at Sun High School were never happier to hear the bell go off at the end of the day. The school was getting old and the air conditioning had failed. To add more along with the faulty A.C., outside the weather was scorching hot. Even though the school was funded mostly by Hercule Satan, the World's champion and also one of the wealthiest men on Earth, they decided to fix the air conditioning once the students had cleared out when there was less congestion. It was close to exam time for the students of Sun High and there were projects to be completed, notes to be written and studying to do. Being the last month of school, the principal, Mr. Jon, felt the students would survive without any cold air to cool them down from the heat.

At Sun High, a teenager named Yorudan, was what people would call "gifted". His athleticism was beyond his years so naturally, he was a star athlete at his high school. His hair was medium length and sometimes spiked up or sometimes left undone, black of colour. He was always either clean shaved or had a little bit of stubble of his face. Yorudan stood just under six feet tall and was lean like a horse. He thanked all the sports he played for that.

Throughout the years that he had played sports, no one ever questioned his abnormal perks as an athlete. Others' bodies varied from one another, where some are strong and some are not as strong so people assumed it was just genetics. Multiple times he was questioned by the school athletic league so they would test him for performance-enhancing drugs but every time, the results came back negative. His body allowed him to run long distances for several hours before he eventually got tired and he was very agile, which helped him make cuts effectively when trying to avoid tackles as the school's quarterback. Yorudan was also strong, very strong. He set the school record for bench pressing two hundred and twenty-five pounds thirty-seven times.

"Just come to my locker when you're done packing up all your homework," Yorudan said to Kurisutin, his girlfriend, as they were talking in front of her locker. "My dad can give you a ride home or if you want you can come over for a bit and I'll drive you home after."

"OK that's fine," said Kurisutin, with a smile on her face. "I'll just come over for a bit. I need help with some homework anyway so you can help me with that." Kurisutin adored Yorudan so much that sometimes it hurt her, as she would describe it to him. She had long, brown and wavy hair that fell down passed the half of her back. The top of her head came up to Yorudan's chin, which he would often rest on the top of her head whenever they hugged. Her eyes were brown and Yorduan found himself getting lost in them frequently. She was athletic as well but she didn't play any sports. Kurisutin did her best to eat healthily and go to the gym when she had free time. Often times, Yorudan and she would workout together.

Yorudan groaned. "You're lucky I'm three years ahead of you or else I'd have you 'helping' with my homework, too," Yorudan said. When Kurisutin referred to Yorduan's help, he knew it meant "do my homework for me." Even though he wanted to hang out with her, summer break was only a month away and he would have all of that time to spend with her. He leaned in and gave Kurisutin a kiss then smiled after he pulled away from her lips. "You're lucky I love you. I'll see you at my locker. Don't be late." Yorudan gave his girlfriend one more kiss on the cheek before he started walking to his locker.

Yorudan's locker was on the main level of the school, downstairs from Kurisutin's locker. He sped down the hallway, dodging other students who were in his way and ignoring the teacher yelling at him to not run. Once he was down the steps, he turned quickly to his right where his locker was. At his locker, he found his friends gathered around it, waiting to talk with him. Usually, they would all meet at his locker after the final bell to talk and figure out their plans for the night. There were times when the school had already cleared out and in the hallway, only he and his friends would be left filling the hall with chatter and laughs.

"You seem to be in a hurry," said one of Yorudan's friends, Jon. Jon was just a little taller than Yorudan but was much heftier. The football coach had asked him if he wanted to play as a lineman but he was afraid of getting hurt. His hair was about the same length as Yorudan's but it sagged down, bangs hanging over his forehead. "We were thinking about going to grab some ice cream."

"Seriously?" said Yorudan. "It's a school night and it's close to exams. I have to finish my math assignment and study for the huge chemistry exam. Plus Kurisutin is coming over. You have the same exam, don't you? I'm surprised you aren't staying in to study for it either."

"I'm a genius. What do I need to study for?" Jon said, sticking his arms out and lifting his chin in arrogance.

Yorudan smirked. "Yeah, whatever. Let me know how much of a genius you are when I beat your final score."

"You'll never beat my final scores, even if you study two months ahead!" Jon laughed, smacking Yorudan's shoulder. "Anyways, all jokes aside. We're going to Dimitori's Friday night. You and Kurisutin should come."

Yorudan thought about what the rest of his week would be like. He had no practices since all of the sports teams he played on didn't play this close to the end of the school year. Him and Kurisutin never made any plans for just the two of them either. "Yeah, we can be there. We don't have anything planned. Let's hope it's not busy, though, being Friday and all. Should we make a reservation?"

"Reservation? Nonsense. We'll be ok." Jon turned around to head over to his locker. The rest of the posse followed. "Friday, meet at my house and we'll all head down together. Don't forget!"

"Sounds good, bro. Enjoy stuffing your face while I'm studying to beat your score."

Yorudan waved bye to his friends. Ten minutes went by and Kurisutin hadn't met him at his locker yet. He checked his phone to see if she sent him a text but the only thing on his screen was the picture he had of him and her as his background. _Maybe she saw one of her teachers and asked them a question about her homework_, thought Yorudan. _That would make life easier for me tonight_.

Finally, Yorudan got tired of waiting and went upstairs to her locker to see what was taking her. When he got to her locker, there was no sign of Kurisutin. "Where the hell could she be?" He tried calling her and there was no answer. The phone rang again and again but there was still no answer. One of Kurisutin's friends, Nime, walked by so he stopped her to ask her if she saw Kurisutin anywhere.

"Seriously?" asked Nime. "She left, like, ten minutes ago with Jasumin. They took the bus together."

When Yorudan heard this, he became angry and was filled with rage. He didn't understand why she couldn't have texted him to let him know she wasn't hanging out with him anymore. Not only did she make him wait for nothing but she made his dad wait too.

He thanked Nime for helping him out and began to walk to where his dad was picking him up. Yorudan felt like exploding and letting his rage loose, like a volcano. It was hard for him to hold in a scream, but he managed to do so. He got in the car, then went home.

Once he was home, he went straight to his room without saying hi to his mom or sister. He slammed the door behind him, jumped on his bed and punched his pillow at least a hundred times, it seemed, before he flopped onto his bed, exhausted from letting out his anger. His phone began to vibrate. When he checked to see who it was, he saw that it was Kurisutin. He let it ring until it stopped and then just laid down on the bed. Needless to say, homework or studying didn't get done.

The next day, the bell for the final class at school was almost ready to go off and Yorudan hadn't gone to Kurisutin's locker once. They didn't even see each other throughout the day. Yorudan was walking to his locker from his previous class to get his books for the next class when he saw Kurisutin waiting at his locker for him.

"Yorudan, are you OK?" asked Kurisutin. "You didn't answer my calls yesterday and I haven't seen you at all today."

Yorudan went to put in the right combination for his lock. Once the right combination was in, the lock clicked, he removed the lock and swung the door of his locker open. All he wanted to do was scream in Kurisutin's face but he knew it was best to not cause a scene. Besides, how clueless can she be? Can she not see that she was in the wrong?

"Yorudan look, I'm sorry I left you yesterday after school. I felt bad that Jasumin didn't have anyone to take the bus with so I-"

"I don't want to talk about it." Yorudan interrupted Kurisutin in a sharp tone to get his point across by saying as little as possible. His mom always said, "If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it at all!"

There was a pause after the interruption before Kurisutin got the hint. She sighed. "Whatever." She turned on her heel and stormed off to go to her next class. Yorudan shut his locker and watched her go down the hall and turn around the corner. He put the lock back on, locked it and started walking to his next class.

Their relationship was like any other teenage couple. To them, it was perfect but for anyone on the outside, they saw all of the flaws. If they didn't fight about one thing, then it would be about another. Both of their friends had asked them separately why they just didn't break up with the other and they would have the same response. "We're crazy about each other. Fighting with her sometimes is better than not being with her."

"Except you two fight all the time," Tomu would say, another one of Yorudan's friends. The two of them would always try to work things out and continued to do their best to be happy with each other, despite what it was their friends said.

After school was finished, Yorudan went to Kurisutin's locker to go talk to her so that he could apologize about before. He noticed that she was with her friends so he stood by the wall across from her locker and gestured her over with his finger to come to talk with him. When she saw him call her over, she shook her head. Yorudan comically gave her a sad face to lighten the mood and she still continued to shake her head. The look on her face said it all. Her eyes didn't brighten up when he came into her eyesight and she didn't so much as give a smile.

Feeling rejected, Yorudan retreated back to his locker to gather his things. His friends weren't there this time because the baseball team had a game and they all went to go see it. Yorudan had wished he wasn't such a jerk to Kurisutin earlier and that he used that time to talk to her when she approached him before class. He packed his bag and walked over to the teacher's parking lot where he parked his car. Yorudan wasn't allowed to park there but it was closer than the student parking lot so he did anyway. He got in his car, pulled out of the parking lot and drove home.

Yorudan ate dinner with his family and was quiet the entire time. Even his family seemed to think it was routine for them to fight but they never got involved. He would tell them that he's old enough to figure out his own problems now. Once he finished dinner, he went to his room and planked onto his bed. He checked his phone to see if maybe Kurisutin tried to contact him while he was eating but his phone didn't show any messages or missed calls so he decided to call her. No answer.

There was a part of Yorudan that admitted that these arguments were becoming exhausting but how could he just end the relationship so easily? Some people have told him "Kurisutin is too young for a relationship and she doesn't know better." That never seemed to make any sense to him. In his mind, if you want a relationship and care about someone enough, there are no complications. Love is easy and when you found the right person as he did, it's smooth sailing. There was only a three year difference between them.

It was getting close to dark and he still hadn't heard from Kurisutin. He wanted to try calling her one more time. He dialled her number and listened to the tone of the ringing once again but this time, she picked up. After a brief conversation, they both agreed to go out for some coffee and talk about everything that's happened over the last day.

Yorudan pulled up to Kurisutin's house and they went to the closest Dimitori's.

Soon, they arrived to the coffee shop and Yorudan parked the car. "Aren't we coming here tomorrow?" asked Kurisutin as she closed the car door.

Yorudan got out of the car, closed the door then locked the car. "Yeah. How did you know? I never had the chance to tell you yet." Yorudan offered his arm to Kurisutin. She accepted and slipped her arm through his as they walked across the parking lot towards the front doors.

"Jon asked me if I was hanging out with you guys."

"I see." They reached the front door where Yorudan opened it for his girlfriend. Dimitori's was the place all the high school students went to spend their nights whether it was to hang with friends or to do homework. Thankfully, there was no one there from Sun High. Yorudan wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone else except for his girlfriend. He wanted to rectify their problem.

"Welcome to Dimitori's!" said the peppy hostess. "For two?"

"Yes, please," said Kurisutin.

"Awesome! Right this way please." The hostess grabbed two menus from under the podium where the seating map was for the entire coffee shop. She led them passed tables that had other couples, groups of friends, both large and small in numbers and a couple of people by themselves, one of them on their laptop and the other reading a book with headphones in, bobbing their head to whatever song they were listening to.

"Here we are." The hostess placed the two menus in front of each chair. "Your server will be with you very shortly. Enjoy!"

"Thank you," responded Kurisutin.

They both pulled their chairs out and took their seats. Momentarily after they sat down, their waiter came to their table to take their order. Yorudan and Kurisutin each ordered an iced cappuccino, a small one for Kurisutin and a large for Yorudan.

"They must get really cold standing by the door in the winter time," said Yorudan, trying to break the silence.

"I'm sure they wear jackets and a lot of layers," said Kurisutin.

Yorudan looked towards the bar where the baristas were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was a miracle to him that they didn't run into each other so often. There was a barista steaming the frother to get it ready for the cappuccino, latte and mochaccino orders, one was making sure all of their supplies were stocked, like milk, so that the baristas making drinks could make them quickly without having to restock things themselves, another was at the cake counter taking orders for customers who wanted cake with a barista beside him getting orders ready for anyone sitting down and one was crushing ice in a blender with coffee. _The coffee and ice in a blender must be our drinks_, thought Yorudan.

Yorudan wanted to have their matter figured out tonight but at the same time, he didn't want to bring it up. He took in a deep breath and let out a breath just as big.

"Kurisutin, look," he started, "I'm sorry I acted the way I did today before last period. I was just upset about what happened yesterday after school."

"I know," Kurisutin said, "And it's OK, I understand. I'm sorry too for not letting you know what I was doing before going on the bus."

Thinking about the situation made the anger inside of him creep up again. "What were you thinking? Why didn't you at least text me to tell me? I was waiting forever at my locker for you."

"I was afraid you would get mad at me because we were supposed to hang out."

"So not telling me at all was supposed to be better? I would've been a little upset but I wouldn't have been mad. All you had to do was just let me know and everything would've been OK."

"I know, Yorudan. I'm sorry." Kurisutin beginning to get upset. She had her hands folded on the table with her head down.

Yorudan was beginning to feel guilty. He was hard on her before and regretted it. _Idiot, did you not learn your lesson from earlier today? Don't upset her more. _"Kurisutin. Baby, look at me. Don't be so upset about it, it's alright. We all make mistakes. Just make sure to tell me what your plans are if you decide to change them, that's all."

Kurisutin's eyes began to get glossy and swell up. Tears began to trickle down her face as she silently cried her guilt out. Yorudan took her hands from the table and placed his over them. He guided her out of her seat and onto his lap so he could hug her. Seeing Kurisutin upset broke her heart but when he tried to comfort her, he felt the warmth of her love travelling through him and knew that she felt the same thing through her.

Kurisutin buried her face into Yorudan's shoulder to let out more tears. He put a hand around her waist and the other on the back of her head to comfort her while she let everything out. He heard her say something but it was muffled. "I can't hear you when your face is buried in my shoulder," he said with a chuckle.

"I don't know why I do stupid things like that," she said. "I'm always afraid of you getting mad at me but then I do something that makes you mad anyways."

He took his thumbs and wiped the tears off of her face with them, trying to avoid her mascara that she had on. "It's ok, Kurisutin. Really. You need to learn to trust me. I know we fight a lot but we just have to start using common sense. How about this? Whatever we would do to make sure our parents wouldn't get mad at us for, we start doing with each other. That sound reasonable, right?"

Kurisutin sniffled and wiped the last bit of tears from her cheeks then smiled. "So if I can't be home for dinner, you want me to tell you?"

Yorudan laughed. "Oh, shut up, you know what I mean." He started tickling her sides and listened to her contagious laugh and looked at her contagious smile. Yorudan was head over heels for this girl and he didn't want to be anymore without her by his side. The butterflies in his stomach were always fluttering since the first day they met and she seemed to get prettier to him as each day passed. If this wasn't true love, he believed he would never find it then.

When Yorudan was done tickling Kurisutin, she looked into his eyes with her sparkling ones, shining so bright that they seemed to have stars in them. She was still smiling at him when she leaned in and kissed him. "I love you," Kurisutin said.

"I love you too," Yorudan replied, returning a smile. They exchanged another kiss and as they peeled away from each others lips, the ground began to shake, gradually becoming more violent. Yorudan took his hands off of Kurisutin and grabbed a hold of the table. Just as he did so, he began losing his balance a little, causing Kurisutin to fall off of his lap. His eyes widened and before he could think, he was underneath her breaking her fall. They both were surprised at how quickly he had reacted but didn't pay much attention to it as they scurried underneath their table for protection from everything that was falling.

The picture of coffee beans that was hanging on the wall beside their table had fallen onto the tabletop before hitting the floor. Coffee mugs were crashing onto the floor along with plates, some filled with desserts, others just the crumbs that were left behind. The barista that was frothing all of the milk had tried to grab a hold of the coffee machine that the frother was attached to but he ended up bringing it down with him. Yorudan was hoping the machine didn't fall on top of him.

Milk cartons fell from the counter and spilled onto the floor, the jars filled with pastries shattered as it hit the tiles, leaving croissants, cookies and tarts all over the place, chandliers were shaking, one of them breaking off from the ceiling and just missing another couple by inches and the tables were bouncing around like they were kids on the air filled jumping castles. Yorudan had to hold the table down to keep it in place so that him and Kurisutin were protected.

Finally, the trembles had ended. Yorudan was so worried about keeping the table in place that he didn't even realize the car alarms going off outside. He got up from under the table, helping Kurisutin up and asking her if she was ok. Slowly, everyone started to follow suit and emerged from wherever they were hiding. He ran over to the bar to see if the barista was alright that. When he got behind the counter, he saw that the machine had missed him. _Thank God._

He helped the baristas up and asked them all if they were hurt. Thankfully, no one in the coffee shop was physically injured. _Most of them are probably traumatized though_. Yorudan met up with Kurisutin. She was smacking the dirt and dust off of her clothes.

"What the hell was that?" asked Kurisutin, "We never have earthquakes here."

"That was strange," agreed Yorudan. He remembered about a feeling he had in his stomach during the earthquake. "I had this weird feeling in my gut when the earthquake was going on. It was different from butterflies. It was like I could feel the cause of the shaking."

"You were probably just nervous or something," said Kurisutin. "The adrenaline probably kicked in."

_This was different than the rush of adrenaline_, thought Yorudan. _If it was adrenaline, why is that rush gone already?_ "Yeah, you're probably right."

Kurisutin saw the curiosity on his face. "Yorudan, it's nothing don't worry. What else could it have been anyways besides the ground moving? Do we have a Godzilla in town?" She found that humorous.

He just rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, let's go. I don't think that coffee is coming any time soon."

Yorudan drove Kurisutin home. When they got to her house, he asked if it was ok if he stepped inside to see what the news had to say about the recent events. "Yeah, sure! Everyone is home."

When they walked through the door, Kurisutin's mom was delighted to see that they were both fine. "I was so worried about the both of you! I tried phoning your phones but there was no signal." She gave both of them a big, motherly hug.

"Luckily, no one was hurt at the coffee shop. One of the guys that worked there almost had the espresso machine fall on top of him but somehow it missed him."

"That must have been some horse shoe up his ass," Kurisutin's dad said.

"Everyone quiet down! The news is starting!" shouted Kurisutin's older sister, Jeshika.

"No one cares about the news," said Māku, Kurisutin's oldest brother. He rolled his eyes and went back to his room. He was the oddball of the family and never said much to anyone. Māku kept to himself and was often cooped up in his room when Yorudan came over.

"When can I play games?" complained Kurisutin's youngest brother, Jōi.

"I said shut up!" Jeshika shouted again, but in a more violent tone.

They glued their eyes to the T.V. as the news reporter began her story of the earthquake. "Not even an hour ago, the whole city experienced something that it never has before. An earthquake began at around 9:30 this evening, causing everyone in the city to be in a panic.

"The last time we have had an earthquake was fifteen years ago, where even that was strange to us as well. The cause for that earthquake was unknown and still to this day, seismologists have not been able to figure out the source of it."

"Fifteen years ago?" asked Yorudan. "Isn't that when the World Tournament came back after that green guy tried to destroy the world?"

"Yeah, you're right!" said Jeshika. "He called himself a king or something like that. The pointy antennas and the pink on him too, right?"

"That's the guy."

"You told us to shush and now you're the one talking," said Kurisutin's dad. "She's still talking, listen."

"As of yet, there is still no evidence of what caused this earthquake as experts are still collecting data. They plan to-" The reporter paused and placed a finger on her ear to listen to the voice that came in through her ear piece. "Yes. Uh-huh." There was a pause as she looked up at the camera. Her face showed shock as her eyes were wide and her mouth was gaped open. "Folks, I had just received some breaking news. We have had word shared with us from other news companies from around the world. As of now, it seems most of the planet has felt this tremor."

Everyone in the living room looked around at each other, unsure how to react. What does this mean? Is the planet going to blow up? Will this happen again and if it does, when will it? Should they prepare themselves for another one? Is it an alien attack?

Yorudan wasn't sure if it was safe to go home or if he should stay at Kurisutin's house. He looked at her and she seemed just as surprised about what she had heard as he was.

"I don't know what to do right now," Yorudan said, breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?" asked Kurisutin. "You can't stop an earthquake and you most certainly can't control it."

Yorudan sighed. "No, I don't mean that. I'm not sure how safe it is to go home right now. What if I get caught in another earthquake? Or what if people are in a panic and they're driving around like maniacs out there? I don't want to risk it but my poor mother is probably worried sick about me."

"I think you just answered your own question, dear," said Kurisutin's mom. "It's not like you can phone her right now to let he know what you plan on doing. Just drive safely. You don't have too far to go anyway. Keep both hands on the wheel and both eyes in front of you."

Yorudan knew she was right. She had convinced Yorudan to leave so the he can get home. He said bye to everyone and peaked outside. It seemed rather calm considering what news had just broke out. He kissed Kurisutin bye, got in his car and began his drive home. There was no rush so he drove the speed limit.

The roads weren't busy, thankfully. There was the odd car that drove by but they all didn't seem to be in a hurry either. Maybe he was over reacting about the whole earthquake thing. _It was probably the only one we're going to have, _thought Yorudan. Maybe they announced on the news after he left that there was nothing to panic about and it was just one of those rare occurrences.

He was so busy thinking about what the earthquake was that he didn't realize he was drifting slowly into the opposite lane of oncoming traffic. When he came to and looked up, he noticed a bright light ahead of him. They were lights coming from an oncoming car. As quick as his reflexes were, Yorudan didn't have faith in himself to react on time so he did the only thing that seemed practical in that moment. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his arms and hoped the other car would swerve out of the way.

Yorudan still had his eyes closed when he noticed he wasn't moving. He slowly opened his eyes and in front of his car was a man, with funny looking hair and an orange tunic with a blue shirt underneath it. The strange man had both his arms out, grabbing onto the front of the cars stopping them from hitting each other. Yorudan looked at this man in awe and the funny haired man looked straight at Yorudan, smiled and winked, then disappeared into thin air. Yorudan got out of his car to see where the man went but couldn't find a trace left behind by him.

"What a night," Yorudan said to himself, "I better get home and get some damn sleep, I think I'm starting to lose it."

The next day at school during lunch, Yorudan went to sit with his friends. He wanted to tell them what happened last night when he was driving home. He called Kurisutin once he got home and after he was smothered with hugs by his mother to tell her what happened on the way home. Yorudan thought she would be curious about it like he was but all she said was "you were only seeing things because you were scared and thought you were going to die." But he wasn't seeing things. What he saw in front of him was real.

"I'm sorry, my dude," started Tomu. "I'm with Kurisutin on this one. You're losing it."

"Man, shut up!" said Yorudan, "I'm not crazy, Tomu! I know what I saw! It was a man, with an orange tunic and he had some funky crap written all over it! It looked as though it was a symbol. There was a small one his right chest and then another big one on his back. And his hair. His hair was black and it just had some kind of funky style, like I don't even know how to describe it."

"Are you talking about what happened last night?" Kurisutin said, sitting down at the table next to Yorudan and joining in on the conversation.

"Yeah and I'm telling you, your boyfriend is nuts," said Jēmuzu, another one of Yorudan's friends. "Has he been on heavy medication or something?" All of Yorudan's friends laughed.

Kurisutin chuckled a little bit at the joke. "Look, babe," Kurisutin shuffled closer to Yorudan and put her arm around him, "don't worry about what you saw last night. It doesn't matter whether what you saw was real or not. The point is that you're OK and you're sitting with us right now."

Yorudan's friends starting clapping. "You found the one, buddy," said Jon. "If she's sticking around with your crazy ass, don't let her go." His friends all started laughing.

Yorudan just rolled his eyes and shook his head at them. He knew what it was that he saw and he knew he wasn't crazy. _They don't have to believe me, _thought Yorudan. _I just won't talk about this with them every again._

When school was finished, he went home, had dinner and decided to go for a walk to the park. After everything that happened yesterday, he needed some fresh air and a break from studying to clear his head.

"Ma, I'm going to go for a walk to get some fresh air!" Yorudan yelled out to his mom. He put his shoes on, grabbed a soccer ball and left the house. "Ah what the hell. Might as well get some exercise too."

The park wasn't too far from his house. He just had to go around the block and he was basically there. The walk only took him about three minutes. When he stepped foot on the grass, he let go of the ball and began to juggle it with his feet. After taking a few steps towards the soccer field, Yorudan heard a noise, almost like the sound of a breeze. He looked up at the trees nearby and saw that none of them were moving. He didn't think much of it and took a couple more steps before he heard someone clear their throat. He stopped and stood completely still. _Did someone follow me? I don't remember seeing anyone around when I left and I definitely didn't invite anyone to come with me, _he thought. Yorudan slowly turned around and he stood face to face with the same man he saw last night.

It was the same get up, the same hair, and the same bright, face. He wasn't as tall as Yorudan thought he was. In fact, the man was quite a bit shorter than him. This was proof that he wasn't seeing things, unless there was something in the air.

"Hi there!" said the strange man. "Sorry to startle you, but you have to come with me." The strange man grabbed Yorudan's hand and before he could ask what was going on, they vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.


	2. Chapter 2

Wilson / DRAGON BALL Z-A NEW ERA / 23

Chapter Two

Yorudan had his eyes closed and was too scared to open them. He was able to feel a cool breeze on his face and hear the sound of seagulls around him. The sound of waves crashing into the shore could be heard and his nostrils filled with the fresh air and the smell of salt and seaweed. Underneath his feet, the ground felt resilient.

The last thing Yorudan remembered was the strange man with the weird hair and orange clothing grabbing his hand. Then he felt a weird sensation throughout his body, in which he closed his eyes and the rest he didn't see.

Yorudan felt something cold and wet fill his shoes. It startled him, causing him to open his eyes and jump around, screeching like a child. As he looked around, he noticed he wasn't at the park anymore. All he could see in front of him was water. There was nothing else in sight except for the ocean. Yorudan thought how it was even possible to be at the beach. His house was nowhere near a beach. It was at least a thirty minute drive to the nearest one.

"Hey! Over here!" Yorudan turned around to the sound of the voice. As he turned around, he began to check his surroundings and he noticed that he wasn't on a beach either. Yorudan was on a tiny island, nothing bigger than the size of a child's baseball diamond but nothing smaller than an above average backyard.

He looked towards where the voice came from and he saw the strange man waving him over towards a beach house. On the top of the house it said "Kame House". _What the hell is the Kame House?_ Yorudan thought. The strange man noticed Yorudan wasn't moving so he decided to move towards him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. "I know this is all new to you and very strange, but you just need to trust me, ok?" He had a big smile flash across his face, seemingly from ear to ear.

"Trust you?" asked Yorudan. "You brought me to a beach house! Why am I at a beach house? I don't even know who you are! How am I supposed to trust someone that just kidnapped me?"

The strange man was still smiling. "I have some friends I want you to meet. I promise you nothing bad will happen and you will be back at your home by next month."

"Next month?" exclaimed Yorudan. "Do my parents know? How can I even tell them? They're going to be worried sick about me!"

"Don't worry," explained the strange man. "Just enjoy yourself and this beautiful weather! I used to train here as a kid, you know. It wasn't much of a vacation, though!" The man started laughing.

Yorudan began to get anxious. He was supposed to go for a walk and then he gets kidnapped by a stranger who tells him he won't be home for at least a month. Knowing his mother, she'll probably have the entire police force searching for him. _They definitely won't find me literally in the middle of nowhere. What ocean is this anyways?_

Yorudan sighed. "I'm already here and there's nowhere for me to go. Who are these 'friends' you want me to meet?"

The stranger smiled, still. Yorudan wondered if he ever stopped smiling. "Follow me, I'll show you!"

He began to walk towards the beach house again with Yorudan following behind him. As they reached the door, his heart was racing so fast that Yorudan thought it was going to pop out of his chest. He had no idea who this man was and why he decided to take him to a beach house. Yorudan was so nervous about what was about to happen that he completely stopped wondering how he got to the island so quickly without any kind of transportation vehicle. They couldn't have walked because there would've been water in the way and it was impossible to fly as a human being. Even if it was possible, the man couldn't have flown that fast without tearing their faces off.

They reached the door of the house after what seemed like an eternity to Yorudan and then the strange man knocked. Yorudan and the man only waited for a few seconds before somebody's voice on the other side could be heard. "Who's making all that racket out there? I'm in the middle of my work out program!"

The door slowly opened and as the door opened fully, Yorudan saw a short old man with sun glasses that had a red frame. The lenses were so dark, you couldn't even see his eyes.

"What do you want?" asked the old man. "I don't need my ducts cleaned, I can do it myself!" As he shouted at his two visitors, his eyebrows lifted and an ugly smile came across his face. "Goku! Is that really you? Haha! You came back! We thought you would never come back! This is fantastic!"

"Goku's back?" Yorudan heard another voice in the background and a little bald man pushed the old man out of the way. "Goku, it really is you!" The little man's eyes began to swell. He rushed passed the old man so quickly that Yorudan didn't even see the bald dwarf tackle his kidnapper until they were both on the ground, the little man drowning the stranger in his tears and squeezing the life out of him with his enormous hug.

Yorudan was unsure about what was going on. It was obvious to him that his friends he wanted to introduce him to haven't seen him in a long time. He began to wonder if this was a reunion just as much as an introduction. Seeing how happy the man's two friends were calmed Yorudan down a little bit but he still felt uneasy about the situation. Why was it so important for this man to bring Yorudan here with all of his friends? That was the biggest question of all the others he had.

"Krillin it's so good to see you again!" said Goku, smiling as usual. He got to his feet and dusted the sand off of his clothes. "Same to you, Master Roshi! Is anyone else here?"

More voices could be heard coming from inside of the house, making their way to the door. "Did I hear that right? Someone said Goku was back?" A lady had popped her head out from the doorway. She was a very pretty woman, in her early to mid-forties, if Yorudan had to guess. Her hair was cut short and was as blue as the sky was on a cloudless day. Around her neck, she wore a red scarf with a white, low cut top that stopped just above her belly button and had blue jeans on. Yorudan was amazed at how skinny she was for a woman her age.

When she saw the strange man that they called Goku, her face turned into a surprised expression. Her eyes swelled up, started to get red and glossy and then tears began streaming down her cheeks. She began moving towards Yorudan's kidnapper, starting off with a walk which quickly turned into a run. She slammed into Goku and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his chest.

He placed one of his arms around her. "Hey Bulma," he said in a soft and genuine voice. Even to Yorudan, the sound of his voice seemed to sooth him.

"When you and Vegeta took off, we didn't know where you went, when you would be coming back or if you two were even alive," Bulma said through tears. "Please don't tell me something has happened to Vegeta."

A hand went behind her head to comfort her. "Nothing has happened to Vegeta," said Goku. "It's actually the opposite. Everything is great. We've been with Lord Beerus and Whis training. How long has it been anyways?" He took his hands off of Bulma, putting one behind his head and the other relaxed at his side. There was an awkward smile on his face.

Bulma stepped back to look at Yorudan's kidnapper. "Seriously?!" she shouted. "You two have been away for this long to train?! I had to raise Bra all by myself! Thank goodness Vegeta's son isn't as incompetent as he is and was around to help me! And to top it off, you don't even know how long you've been gone!"

The smile finally went away from Goku. It was the first time he wasn't smiling that Yorudan has seen. "I'm sorry, Bulma, really!" he said. "Jeez, have we really been gone that long?"

"Yes, Goku! It's been fifteen years!" Bulma had an angry look on her face. She quickly went from a beautiful woman to a beautiful woman that Yorudan didn't want to go near. _At least I know not to get on her bad side._

"Oh wow, that long, huh?" Goku said, resting his chin on his hand, trying to put all of the pieces together. "I guess that would make sense. We celebrated fifteen birthdays so that would mean fifteen years had passed."

Bulma hit Goku on the head. He cowered away as she kept beating him. "You're so thick headed sometimes!" she shouted at him, hitting Goku with closed fists over and over. To Yorudan's surprise, none of her punches had any effect on Goku. It was as if he couldn't feel a thing. _Very odd…_

"I said I was sorry," said Goku. "Sometimes I wonder who is worse, you or Chi-Chi."

Yorudan could have sworn that he saw fire in Bulma's eyes and steam coming out of her ears. The little bald man that Goku had called Krillin and the old man that he called Master Roshi started to hold Bulma back from trying to hit Goku anymore. She was kicking, screaming and saying every curse word in the dictionary.

As Bulma's anger tantrum continued, Yorudan saw a head peep out from the corner of his eye from the doorway. When he looked over, he saw a young girl, maybe around Kurisutin's age, that had the same colour hair as Bulma. As a matter of fact, she looked like a younger version of Bulma. A spitting image, actually.

Two more heads popped out from underneath hers. One head was that of a pig's, the other a cat. Yorudan was startled at the site which drew the attention of all three heads towards him.

Young Bulma smiled at him and gave him a wink before she went back inside. The pig seemed to give Yorudan an angry look. "What?" it said. "Haven't you ever seen a pig before?"

Yorudan's eyes widened and felt his leg take a step back. _What the hell is this?! _he thought. _The pig can talk?!_

"Oolong, that's not nice!" the cat head said to the pig. It then hit the pig in the head with its tiny paw. "That's not how we treat guests!"

_The cat too?! _Yorudan really didn't know what was going on now. _Am I even on Earth anymore? _

In the time that Yorudan had the chance to interact with a girl, a pig and a cat, Bulma had stopped trying to knock the lights out of Goku. They were facing the door now and laughing at Yorudan's reaction to the talking pig and cat.

"It looks like you met my daughter, Oolong and Puar," said Bulma, now smiling.

"What's wrong with you people?" asked Yorudan. "One minute you're trying to kill this weirdo and then the next you're smiling with him again. Apparently, a talking pig and cat is customary to you all, too! Where am I? What planet am I on? Why am I here?"

"Well, most of those, I can answer," said Bulma. "Master Roshi's house and Earth. I suppose Goku is going to tell us why you're here." She looked towards Goku.

Goku found his smile once again. "How about we go inside and I'll explain everything in there?"

Yorudan, Goku and his friends had taken their reunion inside of the Kame House. From outside, it seemed like a small house but from the inside, it appeared as a cozy beach home.

There were no interior walls other than for the bathroom and the closet. In the middle of the room was a large sectional but had no cushions. It had only the backs and there were pillows that could be used to sit on. There was also a low table where the girl, pig and cat were sitting around, sipping on their drinks.

On the right wall as you walk in was the television set where the T.V. was. Beside the T.V. was a clock that possibly could be an alarm as well and a small plant. Between the door and the television set was a small end table that had a small plane sitting on it for display.

To the left was a kitchen that was the length of almost the entire wall. It eventually stopped towards the back wall, where there was another door that read 'TOILET'. Yorudan assumed this was the bathroom. There were also stairs that lead to a second level at the back of the house as well on the right. If you walked straight from the front door, you would begin to go upstairs.

Everyone had begun to gather around the low table. Yorudan had never sat at a table set up the way it was so he just followed whatever Goku was doing. Goku sat on the pillow with his legs crossed and arms on the table.

Master Roshi had gone to the kitchen to make some more tea for his two additional visitors. He began to tell a story about a woman named Launch who used to live with him that had sneezing problems. One day, after one of her sneezes, she took off and never came back. He seemed rather sad about it and Yorudan felt bad but he didn't quite understand why sneezing would make someone leave.

"I don't blame her for leaving one bit," said Bulma. "All you ever did was try to look up her skirt."

Master Roshi had a creepy smile grow on his face, showing those ugly teeth again and began to blush. "She was so pretty. And the way her skirt would fit around her buttocks." He made a squishing motion with his hands as if he was squeezing something. Suddenly, he was hit in the head with a pan, courtesy of Bulma.

Yorudan made a wincing expression on his face as the pan came down on Master Roshi's head, leaving a giant lump where it hit. Everyone else was laughing at his pain. Even though Yorudan felt bad that Master Roshi was hit in the head and that Bulma was an abusive woman, he felt the warmth in the room from these new faces. Maybe this unplanned visit wouldn't be so bad afterall.

Once everyone had a cup of tea and were sitting around the low table, they began to catch up and ask Goku questions. At one end of the seat less sectional sat Bulma. To her right was the pig then the cat, Bulma's daughter followed by Yorudan, then Goku with Krillin and Master Roshi on the other end. On T.V. was an exercise program with five young women leading the workout.

"So how was the training you and Vegeta were doing?" Bulma asked, taking a sip from her cup, fixating her big, blue eyes on Goku. Yorudan wondered if she was in love with him and why this Vegeta character was so important to her.

"The training was really tough," said Goku. "Beerus and Whis really pushed our limits."

"Was it tough enough that Vegeta couldn't even show his face here?" asked Bulma with a sour look on her face.

"Actually, I brought him to Capsule Corp. We figured that's where you would be," Goku said with a laugh following. "I can only imagine his face when he sees you aren't there."

"Oh cry me a river!" said Bulma. "He's the one who just up and left me and his two children without even saying goodbye! A postcard would at least have been nice."

"Don't worry, Bulma. I'm sure Chi-Chi is probably even more mad at me! That has to make you feel better right?"

"AND HOW WILL THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER, GOKU?!" Bulma was on her knees now sitting straight up with her hands on the low table. She hit it so hard that some of the tea spilled from Yorudan's mug. "You have a family, too, you know! That's a big responsibility! They should always know where their father is! And your poor Goten, had to grow up without a father again."

"Yeah, jeez. I guess you're right," said Goku, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. The guilt on his face was obvious. He was gone for fifteen years without telling his family. Yorudan thought that he would be mad at Kurisutin if she did the same thing, too.

Bulma saw the look on Goku's face and her mood immediately changed. She was the one comforting him now. "I guess that's why Chi-Chi and I married you buffoons though," she said. "For all the stupid things you two do, they never out weigh the good. She'll be mad at you when you get home but there will be nothing else that can make her happier than seeing your face again."

Yorudan sat at the low table observing everything that was going on. He grabbed the handle on his mug and took a very loud, obnoxious sip from his tea, not realizing his poor manners until everyone was staring at him. It didn't help that the sip he took was taken when everyone was quiet.

"Really?" asked Bulma. "You're one of those?"

Yorudan kept his mouth on his mug, afraid to put it down and afraid to lift it up to drink more. He felt that a predator was on the prowl and he had to stay as still as possible so she wouldn't see him. After the violence she displayed today, he didn't want to be on the bad end of her.

"Oh, man! I totally forgot you were here, Yorudan!" said Goku.

Yorudan spit his tea out all over the low table. _When did I tell him my name?! _he thought. _Did I tell him and not realize?_ "I'm sorry, but did you just say my name?"

Goku blinked, with confusion written all over his face. "Yeah, why? Is there something else I should call you by?"

"Yeah. Moron!" said Oolong, who was quickly hit with a punch to the nose from none other than Bulma.

"How do you know my name? I don't remember me telling you."

"It looks like this is the perfect time to spill all the beans!" said Goku, who adjusted himself to get more comfortable. "Let's start off with introductions!. My name is Goku. Over there on the end is Bulma. Beside her is Oolong and Puar. Both of them are shape shifters. Beside you is Bra. She's Bulma's daughter."

Bra turned to Yorudan. "Hi! It's nice to meet you." She leaned in and gave Yorudan a kiss on the cheek. His face went red instantaneously and then blood spewed out from his nose. He covered his nose and began to talk in a muffled and congested voice. "I have a girlfriend."

Goku and Bulma started laughing. "They'll get along pretty well," said Bulma.

The introductions from Goku continued. "Beside me is Master Roshi. He trained me when I was a little boy. And finally, there's Krillin, my best friend. When Master Roshi trained me, Krillin was right by my side training with me. We've been best of pals since!"

Yorudan blinked. "It's really nice to meet everyone," he said, "but you still haven't answer my question yet."

"Oh, that's right." There was a pause. "What was the question again?"

_Is this guy for real? _thought Yorudan. _I can't tell if he's serious or just playing dumb._ "My name? How do you know it?"

"That's easy! I've kept my eye on you for the last five years. With Beerus and Whis, too."

"You kept an eye on me for five years?" Yorudan wasn't sure if he was creeped out or if he was even more curious as to why Goku had so much interest in him for five years. There hasn't been anything special about him other than his athletic ability. Goku can't be a scout for any college or university either because they don't kidnap students in the fashion he did to try and recruit them.

"Yep! I figured since all of us aren't getting any younger, it may be time to look for a new protector of Earth! One day, I felt this surge of power. It was so raw and it wanted to be let free so badly but I could tell that the host didn't know how to release it. So I followed where the energy came from and it led me to you."

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Yorudan. "Chill for a second. What do you mean 'protector of Earth'? Protecting Earth from what exactly?"

"Iunno, bad guys and stuff," said Goku. He looked towards Master Roshi. "I wanted to train him but I figured he should learn the basics first. Is it ok if I leave that to you, Master Roshi?"

Yorudan felt panic take over him. "Train me? What kind of training? Training for what?"

"Sure, I can train him," said Master Roshi. "It'll be similar to the training you did. Do you think he can handle it?"

"Why aren't you answering me? Answer my questions dammit!" Yorudan was really started to panic now. All of these plans were being made for him and he had no idea still what was going on. The competitive athlete in him was up for the challenge but he didn't feel comfortable in not knowing what the protector of Earth meant. Did it mean exactly what it sounded like?

"Goku, Yorudan's trying to talk with you," Bra said, speaking up for him. He looked over at her who then smiled at him. He smiled back and nodded to her in thanks.

"Huh? Oh yeah, what's up?" asked Goku.

"The training, the protector of Earth, all of this. What does it mean? What kind of training? Am I training in something specific?"

Goku blinked. "You're training to be a fighter. How else will you protect the planet?"

"Goku, you're so thick headed!" said Buma. "Yorudan, hunny. I'll give you a short history on Goku and everyone else." Bulma had explained to Yorudan how Goku had taken the liberty to protect the Earth from any evil doers ever since he was a child. Each new enemy that arrived to Earth tested not just Goku's but the rest of the Z fighters' strength. They were trained to fight and also in bukujutsu, a technique where one would us their energy, or ki, to lift their body in the air. In other words, to fly.

Bulma told Yorudan the story about how her and Goku first met, where they began searching for the dragon balls. When asked about the dragon balls, she said that would be another story for another time. She continued telling him about Goku's evil brother Raditz, how her husband, Vegeta, used to be one of the bad guys but after the events on the planet called Namek, he hung around them and eventually became a good man.

Yorudan was intrigued to find out about Cell, who he thought was defeated by Mr. Satan. "Yeah, that was all a total lie," said Krillin. "We just didn't say anything so that he could have his world fame."

There were stories about Majin Buu, when Beerus and Whis first appeared, the attack from Frieza who was trying to extract his revenge on his arch rival, Goku, the story about Goku Black and Zomasu in the future and then of course, the tournament of power and how it came to be.

Yorudan was speechless. He had no idea that these people were responsible for so much that had happened on Earth and on other planets. He was, in fact, quite amazed. There seemed to be more to these people than he thought. And Goku wants to train him to become a fighter as well? Now he felt excited.

"I think I understand this whole protector of Earth role now," said Yorudan. "Those stories answered so much of my questions that I had and they were great stories, too. But now all I have left to ask is why me? Isn't there someone else out there with more energy than me?"

"Most definitely not on this planet, anyways," said Goku. "Believe me when I say this, I've been thinking about a new protector for a while now and I got really lucky I found you. Something in my gut says you're going to be really strong some day."

Yorudan looked down at his mug which was still filled about half way with tea. He was so invested in listening to Bulma's stories about Goku and the rest of his friends that he forgot to drink his tea. His mind was racing at a thousand miles right now. Everything was happening so fast that he didn't have too much time to digest it all. His biggest worry was being away for so long without his parents knowing where he was. "Ok, Goku. I'll take up your challenge and accept whatever training I need to do to get stronger," started Yorudan. "But under one condition."

"Alright, let's hear it," Goku said with a cocky smirk on his face.

"I'm still in school for another month and my parents won't let it fly if I run off. So my training starts once school is finished so that I can train all day, from morning until night, and I get to go home once my training is done for the day."

"Aww come on!" complained Goku, his cockiness disappearing. "A whole month? You're like my wife with the whole studying thing. She would never let me train Gohan and Goten until their studying was done." He looked at Yorudan who was sitting there with his arms crossed, showing he wasn't going to budge from his counter offer. Goku then, too, crossed his arms and put on a pouting face. "Fine, you can start in a month."

Yorudan was less tense than when he first arrived to the Kame House. They were all sitting around the low table now talking and getting to know each other. Yorudan learned that Bra was actually the same age as Kurisutin and she went to one of the top schools in Japan. He asked about Bulma's other child and Goku's kids. Trunks and Goten were both in the same college, in the same year and had a class where Goten's older brother, Gohan, was their professor.

Goku had told Yorudan that he had a granddaughter as well named Pan, who was the same age as Bra. They were both classmates. Krillin was still on the police force and also decided to open up a martial arts club to train young students the turtle way of fighting. He was married to 18 as well and they had a daughter a few years younger than Goten and Trunks named Maron.

The most fascinating piece of information he was able to obtain was that Bulma was "the" Bulma Briefs, President and C.E.O. of Capsule Corp. He couldn't believe that he was sitting in the same room as her and having a conversation with her either. "You're telling me you couldn't recognize me?" she asked.

"No," said Yorudan. "To be honest, I've never really seen any pictures of you. Your name is just always brought up in my business classes and I just figured you had the same name as her."

"Well, if you ever need help with your business and tech classes, you know how to find me!" Bulma pointed a thumb towards Goku's direction, implying that he can bring him to Bulma when he needs to.

After a little more time had passed where the sound of chatter continued to stir in the Kame House, Yorudan had realized that the had been gone for over two hours now. "Goku, I'd better get back home before my parents wonder where I am."

"That's a good idea," said Bulma. "Maybe Goku can get the gang together once your training starts so you can meet everyone else."

"Hey, that's a good idea!" said Goku in excitement. "And then we can all have turns sparing with Yorudan to see how he's improved that training session!"

"Shouldn't you give him some time to learn some things first, Goku?" asked Krillin. "I mean, he is only human, after all."

"Aww but where's the fun in that Krillin?" asked Goku in disappointment. "I really wanna fight him."

"Enough chit chat and scram already," said Bulma. "You're going to get the poor kid in trouble."

After saying their goodbyes, Goku and Yorudan were outside once again, in the same spot that they arrived in earlier in the day. They were about to get ready to leave as Goku placed his hand on Yorudan's shoulder when Goku remembered something.

"Hey, Yorudan, I know you want to get home but is it ok if we make one more stop?"

"I guess so. As long as we won't be too long. It's starting to get dark out."

"Great. I wanted to stop by my home to say hi to my family. It's something I can do without you but I figured having you there would make my wife less angry."

Sending their last waves of goodbyes to his friends, Goku used the same ability to disappear in the blink of an eye as he did when he first interacted with Yorudan. The beach quickly began to fizz away and in front of Yorudan and Goku was a small, dome shaped house in the forest with two additions, it seemed, on it. It looked very cozy to Yorudan.

"Ah, home sweet home!" Goku took in a giant breath of air through his nose. "Can you smell that? Chi-Chi must be cooking something! Let's go see what she's making. I'm starving!"

Goku opened the door to his home and walked in, shouting out for Chi-Chi. When they walked in, they found themselves in the kitchen, where food was on the stove cooking and dishes were set out on the table. Yorudan was unsure what Goku's wife was cooking but it smelled good, nonetheless. It was eerily quiet inside the house for someone who was cooking.

"That's strange," said Goku. "There's food cooking but no one seems to be home. Chi-Chi? Goten! Is anyone home? I brought a friend with me."

In that moment, Yorudan felt something creeping up behind him and he found himself dodging a pan coming for him. He turned around and was face to face with a woman who had an angry look on her face. She came in with another swing, this time aiming for the side of his head in which he ducked out of the way. The pan came back quickly from the other side but it missed him again. The angry woman came downwards onto his head again and the pan caught nothing but air as Yorudan side stepped aside from the blow.

The lady kept swinging the pan and Yorudan kept dodging it with swift moves, feeling the breeze the pan left behind every time it missed. Yorudan heard a yell from behind him and as he turned his head to see, it was a young man, maybe in his 20s, coming in for the finishing blow. He was moving quick, very quick. Yorudan couldn't even see him half of the time because he was moving so fast.

Yorudan caught the pan that the woman was using to attack him with and tried to follow where the young man was going but to no avail. Before he could hit Yorudan, Goku, stepped in and stopped him from hitting his new apprentice protector. With one hand, Goku had stopped the young man's attack and prevented him from trying to attack again. Yorudan had no idea how Goku got there so quickly but he was glad he did.

"Goten? Wow, you grew up so much!" said Goku. "I can't believe how strong you've gotten! Have you been training behind your moms back?" Goku said with a wink.

"Dad!" said Goten. "When did you get home?" Goten dropped his guard and was settled now. He went to give his father a hug. "We had no idea where you went or when you would come back."

"Goku," said the woman. She stood there with the pan still in her hand and tears in her eyes. "Goku, you're home."

"Hey Chi-Chi," Goku said, in the same soothing tone he had from the Kame House. "I'm sorry I was away for so long. Me and Vegeta didn't realize how long we were gone for."

Chi-Chi dropped the pan and went to give her husband a hug, reuniting the family again. "I don't care why you were gone," said Chi-Chi through tears. "I'm just glad you're here with us again."

Goku wrapped his arms around his son and wife. "Me too, guys."

"Now that you're home, are you able to take care of the intruder now?" asked Chi-Chi.

Yorudan realized that she was talking about him. "Intruder? Oh no, I'm here with Goku."

"Did you hear that hun? He said he's with you." Suddenly, Chi-Chi realized what she just heard. "Wait, what do you mean you're with Goku?"

"He was supposed to bring me home but he asked if we can make a pit stop at his house first so he can see you two."

Chi-Chi looked at Yorudan with uncertainty. "Goku, what's going on?"

"Chi-Chi. Goten. This is Yorudan. I'm going to be training him so that maybe one day he can take my place in protecting this world. I figured that me, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and the rest of the Z Fighters won't always be able to do it. So it's up to you two and Trunks to be those protectors once our turn is done." Goku smiled. "Those were some nice moves, Yorudan. You need to teach me them so I can learn to dodge Chi-Chi's attacks, too."

The four of them began laughing. Yorudan began to get more acquainted with Goku's family before he was going to be taken home. Goku explained everything to his family the same as he had explained it to his friends earlier in the day. Chi-Chi was excited to have a new addition to the Z Fighters and said that she would be more than happy to make Yorudan meals when he visited.

"Well, I better take you home. We're going to have plenty of time together once you're finished school and your training begins."

Chi-Chi gasped. "You're putting school before fighting?! Oh, bless you!" She went over and began to pinch his cheeks which were turning red. Yorudan didn't know if it was from the pinching or his cheeks flushing.

Once his cheeks were free from Chi-Chi's death grips, Goten extended a hand towards Yorudan who extended his in return. "It was nice meeting you. Hopefully we can spar once you get stronger. Oh and sorry for trying to kill you earlier."

Yorudan chuckled. "It's all good. Today has been wild so I guess you can say I'm used to it."

He gave Goku's family one more wave before the house began to fizz away in the same manner the Kame house and the park did. Before he knew it, he was back in the park, right in front of his soccer ball. When he turned around to talk to Goku, he noticed that he was all by himself. He snickered. _Today is definitely something I won't be telling my friends about, _he thought. Yorudan picked up his soccer ball and began his walk home with butterflies in his stomach, excited for the next chapter in his life as the protector of the planet.


	3. Chapter 3

Wilson / DRAGON BALL Z-A NEW ERA / 21

Chapter Three

One month had passed since the two eventful days Yorudan had had and there was nothing else that he could think about. There were many times during class when he would space out, his mind drifting back in time thinking about everything Goku and his friends had said to him. He remembered Goku specifically saying the words 'protector of the Earth'. _No, no, wait. The 'new' protector of the Earth, _thought Yorudan. _That would look good on my resume._

Although there was a lot of information given to him, there were still unknowns. He didn't know what kind of training he would get involved in, what kind of dangers the planet faced or exactly how strong Goku thought he was. What was Goku capable of anyways? The way he moved when Goten charged at him was out of this world. He moved quicker than Yorudan could see. Was he an alien?

Wondering if Goku was an alien reminded him of what Krillin said when Goku wanted to spar with Yorudan after some training. "I mean, he is only human, after all." What was that supposed to mean? Only human? Yorudan couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to Goku and his friends than he originally thought. He still hadn't figured out what the earthquake was from either, which he was beginning to think Goku was behind.

Exams were starting next week and Yorudan hasn't spent any time studying since his mind was elsewhere. Thankfully, his parents, his girlfriend and none of his friends had noticed. He was gloating the idea that he would finally beat Jon's final test scores but now it seems like Jon will have the last laugh for a fourth year straight, for the final time since they were in their final year of high school.

Yorudan was getting ready to go to his last class, history. He didn't think they would do much but he still made the trip to his locker to grab a notebook and something to write with. Everyone had already taken their seat by the time Yorudan sat down. Not long after he sat down and got settled in, the bell rang for the start of class. There was excitement in the air for the students in the classroom because they knew they would never have another lecture again.

"Alright, settle down everyone," said their teacher, Ms. Daisy. She waited until everyone had stopped talking before she went on. There were students shushing each other so that she could start speaking. "Since today is the last day, there will be no lecture and no new content on the exam."

The room had erupted in celebration. Even though there may not have been much more content to add on the exam from this one class, the students were still ecstatic to know that there was one less thing to study for next week. Once again, Ms. Daisy waited patiently for everyone to settle down while some students were shushing the rest of the class.

"Although there will be no new content, I still encourage you to take notes today," began Ms. Daisy, "because today we have a special guest speaker. He has traveled from the other side of the world to do lectures in the local high schools so please be on your absolute best behaviour and give him your utmost deserving attention. Everyone, please welcome Professor Gohan!"

_Gohan?_ thought Yorudan. _I remember Bulma telling me that Goku's oldest son's name was Gohan._ Professor Gohan had entered the room to a warm applaud from the students. Yorudan joined in while he tried to see if the professor had any similarities as Goku.

Professor Gohan had hair spiked up just like Goten did and the colour was as black as Goku's. He wore yellow framed glasses that seemed to fit his face perfectly. His choice of clothing was very professional as well. The professor sported a pink dress shirt accompanied with a blue tie. Over top of his dress shirt was was a pale green sweater. For his pants, he chose to wear beige khakis along with black shoes. Yorudan could tell that he was a built man who had muscles that looked like they were chiseled from stone.

_His hair seems like the same and his face kind of seems like Goku's, but this guy dresses too nice, _thought Yorudan. _Plus, Goku doesn't seem too bright so there's no way this could be his offspring. _Yorudan tried to shake the idea of Goku's son getting ready to lecture him during his last high school class.

"Good morning everyone," said Professor Gohan. He turned to Ms. Daisy. "Thank you, Ms. Daisy." Professor Gohan faced the class again. "As your teacher had mentioned, I have come all the way from West City to do a tour within the local high schools. Today's lecture will be rather unique.

"Typically, when we hear the word history, we think of the past but from long ago. World War I and II, the Trojan Horse, the Battle of Thermopylae during the Persian wars, etc. There's nothing wrong with that. History is the past. What many seem to forget is that even events that occurred yesterday are now a part of history. They may not be written in the books we study from but they took their place amongst the rest of history.

"Today's topic will be the tragedy that occurred twenty-three years ago. Can anyone remember anything significant that had happened then?"

A student in the class put their hand up whom Professor Gohan had picked. "We can't remember that far back because we weren't even born yet."

The class started laughing and Ms. Daisy scolded the student for making a silly remark. Quiet had restored in the room again and this time Yorudan raised his hand to answer. "Yes, you there. By the way, I like your choice of style for your hair! Very classy," said Professor Gohan, pointing out the similar hair style that Yorudan had gone with.

"Thank you, professor," said Yorudan. "I believe twenty-three years ago was the attack of Cell. The Cell Games is what he called it I think."

Professor Gohan seemed impressed. "Very good." He looked towards Ms. Daisy. "He must be the bright one of the class. The name of the attack was even correct as well." He looked back towards Yorudan. "Can you tell me the name of our beloved hero?"

Yorudan thought back to when he was at the Kame House. Bulma had told him the real story about how Goku's son Gohan defeated Cell when he wasn't even a teenager yet. He was shocked to hear this because he believed that it was Mr. Satan who had destroyed Cell. Yorudan still wasn't convinced that this professor wasn't Goku's son yet so he decided to test him. "The real one or the fake one?" asked Yorudan boldly.

Professor Gohan didn't have any reaction on his face but he laughed at Yorudan's question. "I didn't know there was a real hero and a fake hero," he said. "Would you care to tell me about both of them?"

_Damn, his poker face is good,_ thought Yorudan. _Let's keep pushing though._ "Well, the real hero is the one we all know and love. He's the greatest fighter this planet has seen. Mr. Hercule Satan. But there was a rumour that went around not long after Cell was defeated by Mr. Satan. That rumour talked about another hero who was the one that actually defeated Cell and let Mr. Satan have the glory to preserve his fame."

Professor Gohan seemed more impressed than shocked at Yorudan's answer. It seemed as if he would never break. He was beginning to think that maybe he actually wasn't the person he thought he was.

"You know quite a bit about the Cell Games," said Professor Gohan. "That rumour you mentioned was making its way around, that's true, but it's exactly just that. A rumour."

The professor continued to talk about the Cell Games to the class but Yorudan had tuned him out. His response had given him away. There was no rumour that went around about another hero. Yorudan did, in fact, research the topic a lot for a paper he had written earlier in the year and within all of the articles he read, there was no mention of another hero. Bulma said that they always do their best to cover their tracks after attacks like with Cell happens. That's when he remembered.

Yorudan put his hand up to ask a question. This would finally give him the answer that he wanted just for safe measure. Professor Gohan stopped his lecture and pointed to Yorudan. "Yes, you have a question? Believe me when I say that the rumour was false, but it was!" He began to laugh. The way his face took shape as he smiled was the same as Goku's. _This is definitely the guy. What are the chances that he's lecturing my class, of all the places?_

"Can you tell us about the battle with Majin Buu?"

Professor Gohan had stopped laughing and his face went from laughing to absolute shock. That was what Yorudan was looking for. He broke the poker face. The answer that Gohan would give him would obviously be a lie but the answer wasn't what he was looking for.

Gohan began laughing nervously. "If you mean Mr. Satan's friend, Buu, well, yes. They often spar with each other. I'm sure some of their sessions get filmed from fans' smartphones who are in the area." He began rubbing the back of his head, another thing Yorudan noticed Goku did when he was nervous.

Yorudan decided to go along with Gohan's response so that he wouldn't put him on the spot anymore than he already has. "Ah, I see. Maybe it was hard for me to see that they were only sparring. Mr. Satan's skill as a fighter is so advanced that maybe it just looked like he was really fighting to me when I saw them."

Confusion had taken over on Gohan's face but he gains his composure and agreed with Yorudan. The lecture had continued, with Gohan talking about other historical events such as the Boston Tea Party during the American Revolution, the Reformation, D-Day in World War II and Pax Romana. To Ms. Daisy's surprise, many of the students were taking notes even though she had told them at the beginning of the class that the lecture wouldn't have been on the exam.

The last bell had finally rang and the students had left quicker than a rabbit did when you approached it. There was a feeling of excitement surging through Yorudan but also a little bit of sorrow. Knowing he would never have to attend another class in high school again was so bittersweet. He would miss the sports especially.

Yorudan had a couple of offers to play on sports teams in college but he felt that he didn't want to go that direction. Sports was always a part of his life and they always will be. He knew he wouldn't become a professional athlete so he wanted to focus on his academics since they would determine his future. There was always the option of just playing recreational sports in pick up leagues.

Yorudan was going to his locker to pack his bag and collect anything in his locker that he didn't want to leave behind. In his bag, he put all of his notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers and anything else he used to take notes with. His locker also had a mirror because sometimes he wouldn't have time in the morning to do his hair so he would do it at school after first class. There was also a small holder for his pens, pencils, markers and highlighters, a picture of him and Kurisutin from this years' prom, a soccer ball and his cleats.

Just as he was zipping up his bag, he noticed a pair of shoes that he didn't recognize. They were dress shoes. He knew students wouldn't wear dress shoes to school, especially on the last day so he knew it had to be a teacher. When he closed his locker, he saw Professor Gohan standing there. "Oh, hi professor," said Yorudan.

"Hey!" said Gohan. "Ms. Daisy said I could find your locker over here. She mentioned you might be here. Is it ok if we have a word for a second?" Gohan looked over and saw Yorudan's friends walking towards his locker. "In private, preferably."

Yorudan looked down the hall and his friends were waving at him. He had all summer to see them and they had some of the same classes to study for next week as well. When they came to his locker, he introduced them to Professor Gohan and explained that Gohan wanted to speak to him in private. His friends cooperated and they left them to their conversation.

"Maybe we can take this to the school roof," suggested Gohan. "It's quieter up there and it's a nice warm day out."

"Yeah, sure," said Yorudan. Yorudan picked up his backpack with all of his things inside of it and followed Gohan to the stairs leading up to the school roof.

It wasn't often that he went up there. Most of the time, the kids that did drugs would hang out on the roof. All of the students knew what was going on up there but the teachers either had no clue or just didn't care. Either way, it's not a good look when it comes to supervision.

The school roof was pretty plain. It had some air units on top and the ledges came up just above Yorudan's knees. There was a lot of debating whether they should lock the doors to the roof to lower the risk of anyone getting hurt but it was quickly dropped as there wasn't enough statistical evidence to reinforce the argument.

The doors leading up to the roof were closer to one of the edges. Gohan lead the way and made sure to leave as much distance between Yorudan and himself. Their clothes had been waving from the wind that had appeared as they were on higher ground now.

After the door was closed, Gohan kept his back towards Yorudan as if he was pondering about how to start their conversation. Yorudan stood facing Gohan's back. He didn't want to say a word until Gohan did.

Yorudan could make out Gohan taking off his glasses. "Who are you?" Gohan asked.

_ That's a strange question to ask right away._ "My name is Yorudan. As you know, I'm in my final year-"

"I didn't ask what your name is," Gohan said, interrupting Yorudan. He turned to face Yorudan now, his face showing that he was very serious. The laughing expression similar to his father's wasn't going to appear this time. "There's no way anyone can remember Majin Buu because we used the dragon balls to wish that everyone would forget. So how is it that you know?"

If Yorudan still wasn't sure about Gohan being Goku's son, he was definitely certain now. Yorudan paused for a moment before he answered, trying to decide how to approach the question. "Well, it's a bit of a long story. See, your dad kind of wants me to be a new protector of the planet or something."

Gohan didn't believe him. "That's a load of crap. My dad disappeared fifteen years ago with another strong fighter so there's no way that he would speak to you. Even if he happened to be back right now, he's still alive so we don't need a 'new protector'."

"I swear, I'm not lying!" explained Yorudan. "It was his friend Bulma that told me the story about Majin Buu and how Goku wished for him to be brought back to life as someone who was pure of heart. You know Bulma right?"

"That's a very viable story but I still don't believe you," said Gohan. "Bulma is a popular lady so you could have just used her name."

"What about Krillin? Your dad took me to the Kame House. It was out in the middle of the ocean. Master Roshi I think was his name. It was his house! And over there also was a cat and a pig. What was their names though?" Yorudan put a hand under his chin, thinking about the talking cat and pig's names. "Oh! I think it was Puar and Oolong? And Bulma's daughter Bra was there as well. She didn't say much but she looked exactly like her mother."

If Gohan was surprised at the information Yorudan gave him, he didn't show it. "I believe all of that, at least. But why would my dad want to train you as a Z Fighter? That doesn't make sense to me. I'm a lot stronger than you will ever be. So is my brother and Bulma's other son."

"He said 'I won't be around forever so it's up to you four to be the new protectors'."

Gohan stared at Yorudan a little longer before a smile grew on his face. "Alright then. If you're supposed to be part of the Z Fighters, how about we fight right now so I can see your power?"

"I actually haven't had a training session yet."

Gohan had ignored Yorudan and suddenly, electricity was sparking from him and wind was pushing Yorudan which he found difficult to withstand. Yorudan had the same feeling surging through him as the time when the earthquake had hit. He began to wonder if Gohan was the cause.

Before Yorudan could deny the challenge, Gohan had already charged at him at some point. He moved quick just like Goku did where you couldn't see him. Next thing he knew, he was hit hard with a punch, flinging his backpack off of his shoulders and sending him back almost over the edge. Yorudan just barely managed to catch himself as he was staring over at a completely different person than the professor who had just lectured him not even twenty minutes ago.

Adrenaline was pumping through Yorudan's veins. To his surprise, he was starting to smile. He then charges back at Gohan, throwing a flurry of angry punches towards him, each one missing by what seemed like miles. Yorudan threw a right hook, a left hook, multiple jabs, haymakers, uppercuts and even the odd kick at his legs but Gohan dodged them with ease. One of his hooks swung towards Gohan's face of which he caught. He stuck his free hand out and without touching Yorudan, he sent him backwards again where he fell on his rear end.

Looking down on Yorudan, Gohan began to smirk at him. "Come on, that can't be all you've got. 'Protector of the Earth.'" There was a seemingly an evil laugh coming from Gohan as he mocked Yorudan.

"No chance!" Yorudan got back up and he continued his barrage of punches. This time, he saw his punches connecting but it was as if they were going through Gohan. _No way! Is he moving so fast that it looks like I'm punching through him?!_ The speed that Gohan had was definitely out of this world. Yorudan had never seen anyone move that fast before. It didn't help that he was untrained either.

Eventually, he got tired from throwing pointless punches and had to take a step back to catch his breath. Gohan stood there as if he wasn't fighting at all. He scoffed at Yorudan.

"So, this is all you have? You're nothing but a normal human. Maybe a little quicker than your typical human, but a human regardless. This fight is over." The electricity was back around Gohan and the wind coming from Gohan was pushing Yorudan even more than it had the first time. Suddenly, Gohan let out a yell and his hair began to change to a blonde colour! A gold aura was surrounding him.

Yorudan stood in awe. It was like he was facing the devil but he was so angelic that he could have been an angel too. When he looked at Gohan's eyes, he noticed that they weren't black anymore but were green. The look he was giving Yorudan was the most frightening look anyone had ever given him. At this point, he would much rather face the wrath of Bulma.

The feeling he had in his stomach from the earthquake was even greater now as if he was wielding the power himself. He could feel a tingle going throughout his body as if it was trying to tell him something.

Just as Gohan was about to make his second move, another body had come between them. He was wearing a white turban with purple on top and a weird looking white cape. Yorudan didn't know who this was but it was a miracle he showed up when he did or else he would be dead. Who knows what Gohan is really capable of. As a matter of fact, is this mysterious person on Yorudan's side?

Once Gohan saw this man, his hair went back to being black along with his eyes. He didn't seem alarmed by this man. Gohan took his glasses out from his pocket and put them back on. "Piccolo? What are you doing here?"

_Did he just say Piccolo? Why does that name sound familiar?_ Yorudan started thinking back to when he was trying to find information on the last world tournament before Hercule had won it. During his search, he had found that there was a boy who had fought a demon king. This demon king wanted to rule the world and use humans as their slaves. The demon king had a name that Yorudan just couldn't seem to remember. Then it hit him. King Piccolo.

Yorudan was beyond frightened now. He started to take a step back, his legs shaking violently. He could feel his palms getting sweaty and his heart pounding through his chest. His breath became heavy and panic had taken over him. This is the demon king who the little boy fought many years ago.

"That same little boy was also Goku and now he's one of my closest allies," Piccolo said to Yorudan.

_What?! He can read minds, too? _thought Yorudan.

"Yes, I can use telepathy," said Piccolo. "Gohan, what do you think you're doing?"

"Aw, come on Piccolo! I wasn't going to hurt him. It was just a test to see how strong he really was."

"By going super saiyan? You know very well he's only human."

"Yeah but how can we trust him? Everyone on this planet had their memory erased about Majin Buu so how do we know he's not here to resurrect him or something?"

"Didn't you hear what he said? He told you why he knows so much! I thought I trained you better than that."

Gohan held his head down in shame. Yorudan could see he really took Piccolo's words to heart. It made him wonder what kind of relationship they really had. "I'm sorry, Piccolo. And I'm sorry to you, was it Yorudan?"

Yorudan had still stood where he was before Gohan had charged at him when he turned super something, without budging a muscles, afraid that a sudden movement could set these two off. The bigger picture starting to become more clear to him now. If Gohan was supposed to be someone to protect the Earth, how will Yorudan ever get the same strength as him? And if Gohan wouldn't be enough, how will Yorudan ever be? The speed, the strength of the punch, the way he was built, the look he had in his eyes, the ruthlessness. He had everything Yorudan didn't. So why was Goku so keen on training him?

"That's something I want to ask him myself, too," Piccolo replied to Yorudan's thoughts.

"Ok, dude, you seriously need to stop that," said Yorudan. "It's creeping me out. It's bad enough you're an evil demon king and Professor Gohan isn't the nice professor I thought he was twenty minutes ago. I don't need more added stress. School is done. I should be happy right now."

Gohan and Piccolo looked at Yorudan with blank stares. Their stares were creepier than Piccolo reading his mind. Several moments had gone by before the suspense had got to Yorudan and he broke.

"Ok, can someone tell me what's going on?" he demanded. "I feel like for every answer I get, five more questions come up. Do you two hate me or something? It feels like I'm super important sometimes yet super irrelevant."

"Gohan," Piccolo turned to face the professor. "Tell your dad I'm going to take him and train him. He has the same problem you did when you were a kid. There's all of this energy built up inside of him and he doesn't know how to harness it."

Gohan was surprised. "Are you sure? I mean, your methods were kind of harsh. No offence."

"That's the best way for him to learn to use his powers."

Gohan started pondering. "Let me take him. I can at least show him how to control his energy and teach him how to fly. At least he can use those skills to try and survive."

Yorudan heard the sound of wind again but he didn't feel any. This time, he knew that Goku had just appeared. The trick of him sneaking up on Yorudan was getting old too quickly. Yorudan turned around and he was face to face with Goku.

"I'm taking him to Master Roshi's," he said. "I've made up my mind already."

"Dad!" Gohan's face lit up the same way Goku's did. It was amazing how much they looked alike. Yorudan couldn't believe he didn't see the resemblance right away. He thought maybe the glass threw him off. The thought of glasses being a disguise was always idiotic to him but it seemed to work this time. "When did you get back?"

"I've been back for a month now!" Goku said with his contagious smile. "I've been with mom and Goten." He began to frown, crease his eyebrows and pucker his lips. "And why hasn't Gohan come to visit us?"

"Oh, um," Gohan began to blush. "Well, you see, I've been busy, with, um, work. So it was hard to visit you guys, you know?" He laughed nervously.

"Don't lie, Gohan," said Piccolo, who had somehow went passed Yorudan without him noticing. He was now standing on the corner of the school with his arms crossed, the occasional breeze taking his cape and waving it. It seemed rather graceful, even for a demon king. "You didn't want to visit because your mother's cooking hasn't been the same since Goku left."

Gohan looked at Piccolo and then back at Goku. He was really nervous now. Sweat was beading down the side of his head and he seemed to be shaking a little. Suddenly, him and Goku both burst out in laughter. Yorudan and Piccolo weren't sure what they found so humorous.

"Her cooking really was bad when I got home too!" Goku said through laughter and tears. "But I was so hungry, I couldn't help but eat it all!"

The laughter continued. "I felt so guilty not going!" Gohan was fighting through tears and laughter as well. "When I had to decide between Videl's cooking or mom's, I had to choose Videl's because not even Ickerus would eat mom's food!"

"Oh man, it was that bad?"

_Are they seriously talking about how bad their wives' cooking is?_ thought Yorudan. He looked over at Piccolo who seemed to feel awkward with the two of them laughing hysterically at each other making fun of their wives. They were the two most abnormal people he has ever met. Their laughing was so loud that even students on the school grounds were probably looking up at the roof. _If that's the case, they're now probably focusing on the green guy standing at the corner like a statue._

"How many times do I have to tell you that I can hear you?" Piccolo said in annoyance.

"Well boohoo for you, Shrek!" Yorudan yelled back. "Maybe if you stayed out of my head, you wouldn't hear me insult you the way I do!"

"How about I pulverize you right here and right now?" Piccolo and Yorudan stared each other down, lightning bolts seemingly shooting between their eyes. They were both growling at each other. When Goku and Gohan looked over, they began laughing even harder when they saw Piccolo and Yorudan locking eyes.

"Get a grip, you two," said Gohan. "Why don't you get a room or something?"

Yorudan and Piccolo both crossed their arms, pouted their faces and looked away from each other. After several minutes, the laughter had finally stopped, Piccolo and Yorudan weren't trying to pierce each other with their eyes and Goku and Gohan weren't talking about their wives' cooking. Goku was now all business and had put the fun aside. As promised, Goku wouldn't ask Yorudan to train until school was finished and now that it was, he was going to hand him over to the Kame House.

"Well, are you ready to get going?" asked Goku. "I waited until you finished school and now school is done."

"I still have exams to write," said Yorudan. He told his parents, girlfriend and friends that he was going away for a month after exams so all he had to do was go home and grab his bag that he packed. "Hang on a second though. Piccolo, how did you find us? And how did you know about me and Goku seeking me out?"

"I felt his energy a few years ago so I went to go see him," said Piccolo. "When I found him, he was hiding and watching you. So I decided to keep my presence quiet as well.

"I started following him around every time I could feel his energy. One day, he interacted with you and brought you to the Kame House. He used his instant transmission technique so I couldn't keep up with him but I followed his energy again.

"When I got there, I listened in on every word. So during the one month you were in school, I decided to keep my eye on you so that you wouldn't be harmed. I figured Goku wanted to train you for a reason so it would've been a shame if something happened to you."

"Wow, so you really aren't an evil demon king anymore," said Yorudan. "Thanks for looking out for me." He turned to look at Gohan. "What was that when your hair changed?"

Gohan smiled. "Maybe that's something you can learn about during a training session. It's best not to fill your brain up with too many things before exam week." Gohan rustled Yorudan's hair, making a mess of it. That angered him a little but not enough to botch his composure.

"So wait, this means we aren't training yet?" asked Goku, disappointed.

Yorudan laughed. "No not yet. One more week. Believe me, I'm as excited as you. It's all I can think about."

The four of them said their goodbyes to each other. Goku offered to take Yorudan home but he said that it was walking distance so he took the shoelace express. The whole walk home, he was thinking about his short spar with Gohan, a spar that was really him just getting pushed around. Even though his skill level of fighting was no where near Gohan's, his movements felt so natural to him as if he was born to fight. It almost felt right.

_Only one more week, _he thought. _And then I can start fighting and training to be strong like them._ Yorudan remembered that he got punched pretty hard by Gohan when they first started their sparring session. He took his phone out and opened up the camera. He switched the camera to the front facing one and when he looked at his face, there was no sign of any bruises or scratches. His face was completely unscathed.


	4. Chapter 4

Wilson / DRAGON BALL Z-A NEW ERA / 23

Chapter Four

It was the toughest thing Yorudan had to do so far. Sweat was beading from his forehead, some of it going into his eye and leaving him a burning sensation that distracted him just enough to make him lose his focus. He was feeling antsy and couldn't stop fidgeting and tapping his foot on the ground. It was hot in the room and he could see some sweat drip down on his paper in front of him. The final question he will ever answer on an exam as a high school student.

History was his favourite subject but math was his strong suit and this question was really testing his skills. Logarithmic functions was a class that was neither fun or interesting. There were always rules to follow where logarithm was the same as one thing and natural logarithm meant the same as something else but would equal whatever logarithm equaled and then pineapples belong on pizza and they don't belong on pizza. That was usually the confusion that went through Yorudan's head when his teacher tried explaining functions.

This last question was one he hadn't studied for though. The question read, "Find x. log base 6 of (X +1) + log base 6 of X =1." Yorudan always wanted to be that guy who would circle the 'x' and write 'found it' but he was determined to beat Jon's final test scores this year. There was no way Jon was going to beat him in their final year. The past three years, Jon dominated the test scores. He even got an early acceptance for an academic scholarship to the top university in West City. All he needed to do was accept their offer but he wasn't sure if he wanted to move away just yet.

There was only five minutes left and Yorudan needed to tackle this question. He wouldn't beat Jon with a blank question on his test. The first thing that he knew he had to do was factor the question and so that's what he did. _If I start writing something, maybe the answer will come to me._

Since log base six was the same, he knew that he could use what was called the product property of logarithms. This would allow him to simplify the question and factor the 'x' and the '(x+1)' into each other. He now had log base 6 of x squared + x. A quarter of the battle was won. Now to win the rest.

He then went on to continue factoring out the solution he had. When he was finished, he was left with two answers: x= -3 or x= 2. This was it. All he had to do was plug both of those numbers into the original equation in the question and whatever gave him 1 was his answer.

He first tried substituting in -3 for x but the answer he got was wrong! That means it had to be 2. If it wasn't, he wouldn't be able to go back and figure it out again.

Yorudan looked up at the clock and there was only thirty seconds left! He grabbed his calculator and began punching in the equation but this time substituting 2 for x. Fifteen seconds.

The last number to put in was the 2 he found for x. _This is it. It's either wrong or it's right. I hope it's right._ Ten seconds. He found himself pressing the equals button on the calculator and…

1! Five seconds left.

Yorudan quickly wrote in his answer. Just as he made the last scribble with his pencil, the timer went off and fireworks had exploded on the screen signalling that time was now up, some students groaning and moaning because they didn't have a chance to finish the rest of the exam.

But that was it. Yorudan was finished. His last exam was written and sitting in front of him. He willingly got all of his things together, wrote his name on the test sheet and handed it in, smiling because the life of an adult now awaited him as he walked out of the school doors one last time.

Training with Goku was waiting for him as well. Patiently, he had waited for school to finish so that he could go and train with his new found friends. The first one to teach him new techniques was Master Roshi. Yorudan was especially excited for him not only because he would be his first trainer but he was also Goku's trainer.

Yorudan went to go meet up with his friends in the teachers parking lot. They had all parked their cars there. It was their last day so they didn't care if the teachers got mad at them. Kurisutin was waiting for him with his friends too.

"Hey, Yorudan!" shouted Tomu. "It's about time. Why do you always have to be the last one out of the exams?"

"Because brilliance needs patience," said Yorudan arrogantly. "Measure twice, cut once. Isn't that what they say?"

"What did you get for the last question?" Jēmuzu asked Yorudan.

"Two. What about you?"

"Dammit! I got five." Jēmuzu punched the air in frustration. "How did you get it?"

"You had to factor it, man," said Tomu. "The whole 'log of b plus log of b' thing, you know?"

Yorudan laughed. "Yeah, that thing."

"I did that but I still got a different answer than both of you," said Tomu. "I got negative two."

"So did I," said Jon. Everyone looked towards him and gasped.

"Hold on," said Jēmuzu. "Does this mean we have a Mexican stand off? The two smartest guys out of our friends both got different answers!"

Everyone but Yorudan and Jon were ou-ing and awe-ing. This test would be it. It would determine who was the smarter student this year. Jon wanted to keep his streak alive and Yorudan wanted to end it. Just as Jēmuzu said, it's a classic Mexican stand off.

"I mean, we all already know that I got the answer right anyways," said Jon. His hands were in his pockets and he had smug look on his face. Everything about his body language said that he knew he was right. But Yorudan thought otherwise.

"How did you do it?" asked Yorudan. He was curious to see if maybe Jon went wrong somewhere and didn't realize but that wasn't something Jon would do. Did he really lose to him again?

"Chances are we both did it the same," started Jon, "but I guarantee you that you read the question wrong. It was x-1. You read x+1, didn't you?"

Yorudan was confused. He would bet every dollar he had that the question had x+1 in it. "I don't think so. The question was definitely x+1."

"Not a chance in hell," said Jon.

Yorudan did the math quickly in his head. If it was correct, the answer for that question would have been three anyways. Something wasn't adding up. "Does anyone have any paper?"

His friends started groaning. "Come on man! Not this again," said Tomu. "We can finally get away from this dump forever and you're going to sit here and try to figure it out?"

Yorudan shot Tomu a glare telling him to be quiet and get him some paper. After rummaging through his bag, Tomu handed Yorudan a crumpled up piece of paper that had nothing on it. He spread the sheet out on the hood of Jēmuzu's car and he wrote the question down how Jon saw it.

"See, after everything is factored, you get three, not negative two," said Yorudan. "How did you get negative two?"

Jon looked it over. "I think you wrote this question down wrong."

Yorudan looked at him. "Really dude? You told me what the question was and I wrote it down word for word. What's wrong about it?"

"It should've been log base of five."

Yorudan shook his head. "We can all confirm that it was log base of six." Yorudan's face lit up. "You read the question wrong, didn't you? Is the streak over?"

"Not a chance, my man!" said Jon, slapping Yorudan's back. "Believe me when I say this, but I'm going to have the highest score between the four of us for the fourth and final year straight and then you all owe me ice cream from Dimitori's!"

"Alright, whatever!" The four guys and Kurisutin continued to chat amongst each other about their plans for the summer. Jon was going to Europe with his family to visit relatives that they try and see once a year, Tomu was going to relax and enjoy his games and playing sports outside, Jēmuzu said he had a lot of books he wanted to read that he never had the chance to during school and Kurisutin didn't know what she was going to do.

"I was really hoping that you would be here for the summer and that we could go on hikes and have picnics and everything," she said to Yorudan. "But you're going away for a month."

"I know, I'm sorry. This was so unexpected and it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down," Yorudan said to Kurisutin. In the end, he ended up telling everyone that he was invited to go on a historical trip to Japan to learn more in depth about the second world war. He thought it was too cliche but they seemed to have believed him. The only problem was coming back home. He would need to have pictures and proof that he went on this trip. If he came home empty handed, his family and friends may start to wonder. He had a month to figure that out though.

"The trip sounds boring anyways," said Tomu. "You'd have more fun over here than in another country learning about things that won't happen again."

"Hey it's a paid trip to Japan. And we make a pit stop to Hawaii for a week since Pearl Harbour is there."

Kurisutin moaned. "Are you sure I'm not able to come? There's no more room left?"

"I already tried asking, babe. It was invite only and they only have enough space for those they invited. I'm really sorry." He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. "Ok, listen everyone. I have to get going. I leave first thing tomorrow morning so I want to go home, pack anything else I may have forgotten and get some extra rest. It's a long flight to Hawaii."

Yorudan departed from all of his friends and gave Kurisutin an extra special goodbye. He held her tight to his chest so that he could feel her heart throbbing against his. His arms wrapped around her so perfectly. She felt like a stuffed animal between his arms that he wanted to cuddle all day and night. When he stared into her eyes, it was as if he was staring into the night sky, stars bright everywhere and lighting the darkness.

He said he loved her in which she returned and when their lips locked, the Earth felt as if it wasn't under his feet anymore, almost as if he was in the clouds. Nothing existed except the two of them, shutting the world out as their lips showed their affection for each other.

Peeling away was the most difficult thing for him because it would be the last kiss he would get from her for a month. It would be the last time he would see her face until he got back. Her voice wouldn't fill his ears and make his heart flutter, the feeling in his gut he had when she was close to him would be absent and her beautiful, brown eyes that he loved so much wouldn't brighten his day up. But it was only for a month and then she would be all his.

When he finally got home, he grabbed his bag then his mom and dad dropped him off at the airport. He lied to his friends just so that he wouldn't have to hang out with them tonight. If they knew, he probably would never say bye to them.

His mom and dad dropped him off at the airport to catch 'his flight'. He needed it to feel as realistic as possible. Thankfully, Goku and his friends agreed to help him out. The plan was that Goku would be the trip's guide (and good thing it wasn't a real trip or else they would all be in trouble) and all of his friends would be the tourists who got their invites as well. There were faces the Yorudan recognized like Bulma, Krillin, Master Roshi, Bra, Gohan, Piccolo (how he blended in was beyond Yorudan), Goten and Chi-Chi. The rest of the faces he had never seen before.

One man had blue hair, the same colour as Bulma and Bra, in a mushroom cut style. Another had hair as black as Goku in a funny shape as well but his style seemed to spike up more, The look he had on his face seemed like he was ready to hurt the next person to breath in his space. A lady was standing beside Gohan with another teenage girl that was around Kurisutin's age. She had shorter hair, just like the lady and had a red bandana around her head. She sported a red crop top and a cream coloured capri. Yorudan assumed this was Gohan's wife and daughter.

Once his parents had seen the large group of people, they fell right for his plan and didn't even wait to see if he went through to the terminal. They said their goodbyes to their son and wished him a safe flight and to be careful.

"Make sure you stay with your tour guide at all times so that you don't get lost or in trouble," his mom said to him.

"Yes, mom, I know," said Yorudan. He just wanted them to hurry up and leave so that he could go train. Eagerness started taking over him.

His mom smothered him in kisses and hugs where his dad just gave him the 'bro hug'. They were men, that's all they needed. Finally, they had began to walk back to the car until they were out of sight.

Yorudan turned to Goku and his friends. "So, are we ready?"

"Well look at you all ready to go," Bulma said. "Someone is excited to get started."

"Oh you have no idea," said Yorudan. "It's all I was able to think about since we first met at Master Roshi's place!"

"Well, let's waste no more time then! Let's go to the plane!" Bulma said in excitement.

Yorudan was confused. "The plane?" he asked. "Why doesn't Goku just do that thing he always does? Isn't that faster?"

"That's what I always say!" said the black haired girl with the red bandana. "Let's just get there already! Come on, grandpa, use your instant transmission!" She looked right at Goku when she said grandpa.

Goku shushed who was supposedly his granddaughter. "Don't say that too loud. You don't know who's listening."

Bulma sighed. "All you kids are the same. You're always in a rush and never want to enjoy the beauty of anything. Well I have the final say so in the plane you all go!"

Both teenage girls groaned, along with a third that Yorudan seemed to have missed before. She had blonde hair and her faced seemed to almost resemble Krillin. "But we don't wanna," said Bra.

Bulma put her hands on her hips and stared through the three young girls with the angriest of looks Yorudan has ever seen. "Now."

Slowly, they began moving through the terminal where the supposed plane was waiting for them. The rest of the posse had followed their lead. Yorudan was a little disappointed because he was really hoping to start training right away but it seemed like now he was going to have to wait. He waited this long already so what's another few hours?

Walking alongside him was the young man with the blue hair and the mushroom cut. "So, you're the guy that Goten was telling me about, huh?" he said. "He told me that you were dodging his mother's attacks like they were second nature. That's pretty impressive. Not even Goku can do that." He said that with a smile.

Yorudan chuckled. "Heh, thanks. I guess when you don't want a goose egg left on your head, you make sure you move out of the way."

The young man laughed. "I guess that's true. I'm Trunks, by the way." He extended a hand to shake Yorudan's in which Yorudan responded with a handshake of his own. "I'm Bulma's son and Bra's older brother. My dad's Vegeta." He pointed to the angry man with the spiky hair of the same colour as Goku. "There's a slim chance you'll be on his good side or that he'll even like you so take anything he says to you with a grain of salt."

Vegeta was intimidating to Yorudan. If he were to see him in the streets and didn't know who he was, he would think that he was going to try and commit a mass murder of some sort. Yorudan found it hard to believe that he was part of the good guys. It was the same with Piccolo when he had intervened in Gohan and Yorudan's fight on the roof top of Sun High. Whatever his story was, he was glad that to two of them were on the right side of the fight. Trunks seemed like he was alright so Vegeta can't be all that bad. Plus, Bulma married him and she was an angel to Yorudan, despite her anger issues.

The group finally passed through the terminal and they came up to a large, yellow plane that had Capsule Corp. right along the side of the plane and the "CC" logo on the tail. Yorudan looked inside of the plane from the window of the airport and looked around their waiting area. He didn't see a pilot. "Hey, where's the pilot?"

Bulma turned around. "You're looking right at her!"

Yorudan gulped. "You can fly this thing?"

She walked over to Yorudan. "Young man, if we hadn't just met, I would've taken that as an insult but now I get to showcase my skills outside of my knowledge," she said with a wink. Yorudan blushed.

Bulma yelled out for all them to start boarding the plane and so they did. One by one, they went through the passenger boarding bridge and onto the airplane. Inside was the most beautiful interior for a plane that Yorudna had ever seen. It didn't have seats like a regular economy class. They were all recliners that were made of brown leather, sets of four facing each other with tables that folded into the sides of the plane for each pair facing the other. There were couches made of the same material that also had tables that folded out from the wall of the plane. At the back, there was another room that had four bunk beds. They seemed even more comfortable than Yorudan's bed.

He stood at the entrance door with his mouth dropped down to the floor, blocking everyone else trying to board but he didn't seem to notice. "Is this plane just for us?"

"Shut up and get inside!" a voice behind him shouted. When he turned around, he was staring at the evil face of Vegeta. Without hesitation, Yorudan went inside as fast as he possibly could and found Trunks and Goten sitting in one of the sets of seats where he decided to join them.

When he sat down, he was breathing heavily with his nerves getting the best of him. Trunks and Goten were both laughing at him. "Pretty scary, huh?" said Goten. "Don't worry, the most he'll do to you is yell anyways. He's all bark and no bite. Well, he will be with you anyways. Anyone else he would definitely drop the gloves with."

Yorudan took that to offence a little bit but he just let it slide. "Does he ever laugh or smile? It probably hurts to be that angry all the time. How is his hair not grey with all the stress?"

Trunks and Goten both laughed again. After some time had passed, Bulma's voice came on over the speakers explaining that they were getting ready to take off soon and before they knew it, they were up in the air after several minutes of Bulma bickering with Oolong to just follow her rules. As far as the takeoff was concerned, it felt pretty smooth to Yorudan. The most smooth a takeoff has ever felt for that matter.

After about half of an hour flying, Goten broke the silence between the three boys. "So, I guess it's ironic that the three of us are sitting together."

"What do you mean?" asked Trunks.

Goten smiled. "Well, we're the new protectors of the planet. This would be a good time to come up with a strategy or something right?"

"What strategy are we going to come up with?" Trunks asked. "As it stands, Yorudan is useless without any training, no offence buddy."

"None taken," said Yorudan. He was remembering his fight back with Gohan at school on the roof top and thought about his hair turning yellow and the gold aura surrounding him. "Can you guys change hair colour too?"

"Change hair colour?" Goten asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"You're so dense, dude," said Trunks. "He's asking if we can go super saiyan. Right?"

Yorudan had no idea but just agreed with him. "Uh, yeah, sure. The super saying thing."

Trunks chuckled. "Not saying. Saiyan. It's an alien race. Has no one told you any of this yet?"

Yorudan shook his head. He explained to Trunks everything that Goku had told him when he first brought him to Master Roshi's and about his fight with Gohan. Trunks and Goten seemed really impressed with him when he mentioned that he fought Gohan.

"I can't believe you fought Gohan at your current skill and didn't even come out with a scratch," said Goten. "He would've pulverized you if he attacked you at super saiyan, though."

"What is this super saiyan thing that you guys keep saying? Piccolo mentioned it to me too."

"Let me start by giving you a quick history lesson," said Trunks. Yorudan's posture straightened up when he head the word history. "There was a planet called Planet Vegeta that was habited by the race of saiyans. They were a race of warriors who knew nothing else but to fight. One day, this evil being named Frieza had destroyed their planet because he felt threatened by their power. This power being a super saiyan. It was only a rumour that was originally a story about the legendary super saiyan from a thousand years before then.

"Before the planet blew up, Goku and my father were put into saiyan pods and sent away so that they could survive. I'm not entirely sure where my father landed but Goku's pod ended up getting redirected to Earth, where he grew up and protected it. At some point, my father had come to Earth in search of the dragon balls, which will be another story for another day.

"My father's intentions at that time were evil but over time he learned to push down that evil until he married my mother and had me. That was what solidified the good in him.

"To answer your question about the super saiyan, it's basically a transformation that only saiyans can make where it exponentially increases their power, energy, speed, strength, etc. The yellow hair is just something that comes with the transformation. Thanks to my father and Goku, we know there's at least three levels of the super saiyan."

Everything Trunks had said explains a whole lot about Goku now. He knew it was impossible for a human to be that powerful and have the ability to move as quickly as he does. But Goku had never changed his hair colour since Yorudan has met him. He could have at least demonstrated while they were at Master Roshi's. Then it hit Yorudan. If Goku and Vegeta were saiyans and Trunks, Bra, Gohan and Goten were their kids, then that would mean…

"Are you two saiyans too then?"

"We're half," said Goten. "Both our mother's are human so we're only half saiyan but that's all we need to be able to change into a super saiyan."

Yorudan looked towards the three girls who were giggling at whatever it was they were talking about. "And what about them? Are any of them able to go super saiyan?"

"No, not yet," said Trunks. "Only Bra and Pan have the saiyan gene in them. Marron is full human like you."

Yorudan stared at the table that was folded down, seemingly disappointed. He trusted Goku's instincts that he would be powerful enough to help save the world but with the way Trunks and Goten were talking, humans didn't compare to saiyans, especially with all of these transformations. What if humans can transform then? Could that be a reason why he has faith in him so much? There was a part of him that really wanted to be able to transform into a super saiyan.

After several hours of flying and obnoxious snoring from Goku, Vegeta, Master Roshi and Gohan, they all finally landed at the Kame House. The plane was able to land on the water and Bulma brought it as close to the beach as she possibly could so that only their feet would get wet.

The house looked the same as it had when Yorudan first saw it a month ago but this time it seemed more relieving to see. It felt more like a home rather than a mysterious place that made Yorudan anxious. In his stomach, he could feel the fluttering of all of the butterflies. This was it, he was here. The time for him to train has begun and he was going to be stronger. He was curious to see how much stronger he could become.

Yorudan jumped down from the plane with a splash, following Trunks and Goten. He never had the chance to meet the new faces that were at the airport so asked if Goku can introduce him to them. On the plane was Yamcha, who was another one of Goku's friends that he had known since he was a kid. There was also 18, Krillin's wife, and Marron, their daughter, Gohan's wife and daughter, Videl and Pan respectively, Vegeta, Tien, Chiaotzu, 17, who is 18's brother and Yajirobi.

After the introductions, he found Master Roshi so that he could get settled in and start his training. "First, you should go upstairs and get your bed ready. Training starts tomorrow," said Master Roshi.

"Tomorrow?" asked Yorudan in a tone that suggested that wasn't good enough. "Why can't we start right now?"

"Because no one needs their milk delivered to them at this time of the day," said Master Roshi.

"Milk delivery? What do you mean milk delivery? I thought I was training to become a fighter."

"You are. And it starts with you delivering milk."

Yorudan blinked. "I hope this is some kind of initiation for the new guy or something."

Master Roshi shook his head. "Nope! Tomorrow morning, be ready to deliver milk! There are about three hundred people you will need to give milk to."

"Whatcha guys talking' about?" Goku asked, sneaking up on Yorudan, as usual, except not in his usual fashion.

"Goku, he's having me deliver milk tomorrow. I hope this is some Mister Miyagi kind of training where it actually means something."

"Milk deliveries?" asked Goku. "Master Roshi, I think he's passed the milk-"

"Now Goku," started Master Roshi, "you gave the boy to me to train, remember?"

"Yeah, but-"

"No but's! If he's capable of delivering the milk then I will move on to the next stage of training. This is the way of the turtle. The way of the turtle is to overcome the human will. If he can do that, I will fight him myself. Once he is able to beat me, he will officially graduate from the Kame-style martial arts and will be yours."

Goku looked at Yorudan. "He's right. The training may not be what you expected, but it will help. It's how I started and I've turned out pretty well if I do say so myself." He grinned and laughed.

Yorudan had tried his best to convince himself that Master Roshi's training will benefit him. He eventually brought his stuff upstairs to the room that was in the Kame House. It was much smaller than Yorudan had expected and there was nothing in it except for a small night stand and a bed that wasn't sitting on a bed frame but was on the floor. He assumed this was all he was going to get so it was something that he would have to get used to.

After getting himself settled in, Yorudan went back outside where Yamcha had the barbecue fired up and was cooking all sorts of food. He had steak, lamb, ribs, fresh fish that Trunks and Goten just caught that same day, hamburgers that were apparently the meat from a T-rex, hot dogs and corn. A long table was set up and the yellow plane they had arrived in was gone. Being a Capsule Corp. plane probably meant that it was now in a capsule.

Yorudan took his seat next to Pan, who was sitting beside her mother. He never had the chance to talk and get to know her. Gohan seemed like a nice person so he was sure Pan has some of her father in him. Yorudan was telling her the story about how Gohan was giving a lecture to his class and then after the class he challenged him to a fight. She seemed amused with the story and her father.

Not long after Yorudan took his seat, everyone else had taken theirs. Yamcha took the food off of the barbecue and Bulma was helping to serve it. The amount of food that was on the table was enough to feed an entire banquet hall. Yorudan had faith in his eating skills but would everyone else be able to keep up? He leaned in towards Pan. "Isn't this a little too much for all of us to eat? I mean, there's literally a whole fish about five feet long on the table and that alone would fill all of us."

Pan started laughing hysterically. "Yorudan, you're a funny guy," she said. "Don't you worry yourself! Grandpa and Vegeta will probably eat half of this on their own. Just you watch."

Was Pan ever right. As soon as everyone got the ok to eat, Goku and Vegeta were devouring plates like it was going out of style. Before Yorudan knew it, more than half of the food on the table was gone and plates were stacked so high that he was afraid they would fall and break. _Anymore plates stacked on those piles and they may reach the clouds._

After everyone had filled their plates, the huge fish that was on the table only had bones and a head left, all of the steaks were gone, most of the hot dogs were left, two hamburgers were untouched, no salad was left, bones were the only signs of any ribs being part of the itinerary and half of the corn still remained.

Yorudan's plate was barely touched because he was too busy watching Goku and Vegeta vacuum their food. Did they even chew their food? He looked down the table and saw that Yamcha hadn't touched his food either. Yamcha caught Yorudan staring at him and noticed his plate too.

"You were too busy watching them too, huh?" Yamcha asked. "I've seen Goku eat like that more times than I can count on my fingers and toes but it still amazes me how much he can fit in his stomach. That's a saiyan for you!"

Throughout the evening, there was chatter and laughter in the air. Just for a little while, Yorudan had forgotten about his training, his old life back home, whether or not he beat Jon on his test scores or how he would spend the rest of his summer after his month of training. When he finally did come to his senses, he looked out towards where the sun was setting. It lit the sky up in a beautiful orange that was fierce yet showed that it can be extravagant, too. The waves of the ocean were so small and they left a soothing sound as they subtly crashed into the shore, barely coming up onto the beach, leaving little critters and shells behind.

He got up from his seat and went towards the shore to stand and look out to the ocean. His mind began to become busy again with all of the questions that he desperately wanted answers to but he knew the only way to get the answers was to move forward with the training that Master Roshi had set out for him. Yorudan wished that Kurisutin was there with him.

Not much time had passed before he had some company standing beside him to look out to the ocean with. When he looked, he saw that it was Pan. Even though his heart belonged to Kurisutin, he couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked in the light of the sunset. The orange was reflecting on her black hair, giving it a striking shine like no other that he has seen before. Her eyes had orange sparkles in them and the way the light had created a shade hugging her slender body made Yorudan's eyes wander for a moment, hopefully unnoticeable to Pan.

He gave his head a light shake and looked back out towards the ocean. Pan was doing the same. "What're thinking about?" she asked.

Yorudan paused for a short moment before he answered, trying to get the image of Pan out of his head and back to Kurisutin. "A lot of things," he said. "I'm just as excited as I am nervous. I feel as if your grandpa has this spectacular plan in his head but he doesn't want to share it."

"To be honest, he may not even have a plan," she said. "He does a lot of improvising."

Yorudan smirked. "That doesn't exactly make me feel any better," he said. "How does he know this training will work? What if I'm just a regular guy?"

Pan found a rock and picked it up. She fumbled with it to find the most comfortable spot in her hand and then through it across the ocean. Her and Yorudan watched it skip along the water. "Then you're just a regular guy," she said. "What's so wrong with being regular?"

Yorudan looked at her again. He never thought about that. What if he was just a regular guy? Then so what? It's not like he was the one who searched out for Goku to seek his guidance. Goku came to him. If Yorudan is nothing more than normal, then Goku should have used better judgement.

"I never thought about it that way," he said. "I guess I feel like there's a lot of pressure on me because Goku has put a lot of faith in me."

Pan found another rock and threw it. This time, it skipped four more times than the first one did. "You seem like an alright dude. Just do your best during your training and don't think about anything grandpa said." This time, she picked up a stick. When she threw it, they both watched it splash into the water. "Everyone here believes that you're someone special too. It's just you who thinks otherwise."

"Everyone?" Yorudan was shocked to hear this. He had no idea that they all had faith in him as well. If they didn't, then they probably wouldn't have shown up to the Kame House. A spark had ignited inside of Yorudan. Suddenly the nervousness was gone and a fire was blazing inside of him. He felt a chill shoot down his spine, the motivation returning to him to become the greatest fighter amongst the human race. His training started tomorrow and he would be ready to show Goku and his friends that he would be a force no bad guy would want to contend with.


End file.
